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Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

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Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#471

Post by MagnumOpus »

wallflower wrote: post #328
ComputerGuru wrote: post #264

The Count of Monte Cristo , by Alexander Dumas. I'd read thousands of books, novels, and other literature and never had an answer to "your favorite book?" and thought I just wasn't meant to ever have one... Until I read it. Since then, I've bought copies solely to have on hand to gift to people I actually care about. To drive home the point of just how much I loved this book, I went on to learn French just so I could…

> I went on to learn French just so I could read it in the original print. That is one of my mom's favorite books! Can you please elaborate about the process of getting there/how much practice it took to get you towards the point where you could enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo in its native French? Right now, I am studying Spanish and my reading comprehension in Spanish is low. It is not enough to understand somethin…

I am not OP, but I've been studying French for 7 years in school before I read Monte Cristo in French, and it was still a very challenging read - to the point of being more work than pleasure. It is full of old grammatical forms and full of passé simple, much harder to read than contemporary novels let alone Le Petit Prince.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#473

Post by MagnumOpus »

nl wrote: post #400
Frogolocalypse wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Black Swan is on my list too.

Is it really that good? I've started it a few times. Nassim Nicholas Taleb seems to make sure never to use one word when ten could possibly be used, especially if some of them about himself.

No, it is not. The idea behind the book is as sound as it is simple: shoehorning normal distributions in places where they shouldn't go just to make problems tractable will end in disaster due to an excess of fat tails in the real world.

However, Taleb has been pontificating on that single idea for fifteen years now and has parlayed twenty pages worth of ideas into three books, a collapsed hedge fund and numerous academic positions.

Skim the first three chapters of any of his three books, and you will have learnt all there is to learn from him.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#474

Post by FourSigma »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #264

The Count of Monte Cristo , by Alexander Dumas. I'd read thousands of books, novels, and other literature and never had an answer to "your favorite book?" and thought I just wasn't meant to ever have one... Until I read it. Since then, I've bought copies solely to have on hand to gift to people I actually care about. To drive home the point of just how much I loved this book, I went on to learn French just so I could…

YES! My favorite book! Make sure to get the unabridged version in particular the Robin Buss translation. Love introducing people to this great work of literature.

https://www.amazon.com/Count-Monte-Cristo-Penguin-Classics-e...

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#475

Post by r_smart »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #348
sneak wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make an effort to pirate Ender's Game versus spending money on it; the author is a notorious bigot who uses his money to destroy equal human rights.

If you're interested in reading someone's books without paying for them, I propose there are several decent alternatives: 1. Do the legal thing and go down to the local library, even at some inconvenience to yourself. 2. Drop the smug sense of moral superiority. 3. Stick up for your moral superiority by making a sacrifice by depriving yourself of the pleasure. It doesn't make a whit of difference in the economy, but…

Another point to tack onto this: The value of the work itself is well worth paying for, even if it has hidden costs to it, like when we drive cars or buy things made in sweatshops. His books are beautiful, and were influential to me when I was younger, particularly Speaker for the Dead. If one bigot helps to inspire tolerance and introspection in millions of people, then he'll have done far more harm than good, no matter how he spends the money.

I was actually shocked to find out about his personal views years after reading his books. Perhaps he needs to give Speaker a read himself.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#476

Post by pavel_lishin »

seizethecheese wrote: post #290
pavel_lishin wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's baffling that the same man who wrote the stories I loved can stand up and with a straight face tell everyone that gays aren't like us, and that gay marriage is destroying civilization. He literally said that, at a reading I attended. After telling us about the power of stories and humanity, he veered into that as a total non-sequitur.

It's almost like the quality of art and the artist's character are not related...

This is what I tell people when they start telling me that they refuse to read his work, or pay for his work, etc.

But it's not like he's a painter; he tells stories of empathy, of understanding, of togetherness, of bridging chasms of understanding. He came up with the Hierarchy of Foreignness - he wrote stories of people emphasizing with insect hives, of aliens that have nothing in common with us, of people who suffer for others with no reward.

And yet, he can simultaneously see the other side of the Necker cube where two men kissing is somehow going to bring down America.

It's just... uncanny.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#477

Post by pavel_lishin »

david-given wrote: post #376
pavel_lishin wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's baffling that the same man who wrote the stories I loved can stand up and with a straight face tell everyone that gays aren't like us, and that gay marriage is destroying civilization. He literally said that, at a reading I attended. After telling us about the power of stories and humanity, he veered into that as a total non-sequitur.

I like to think of it the other way round --- look how good his books are despite some of his frankly appalling opinions. That said, and while I like _Ender's Game_ a great deal and think it's an excellent book, I did find an analysis once about how fundamentally it's about how fear and violence are the only appropriate actions when faced with the unknown; Ender may be sorry for what he did afterwards... but that's a…

I've read The Forever War, and it was good.

Have you read the sequels? The Speaker for the Dead branch of the sequels; Ender goes on to do more than just feel sorry for the Formics, and other intelligences that humanity discovers. Arguably, he more than makes amends for the mistakes he and the rest of humanity make.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#478

Post by mindcrime »

teekert wrote: post #333
mindcrime wrote: post #66

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is one I've given adults. For kids, every year a local group called Book Harvest does a thing with Barnes & Noble where if you go in a B&N store, you can donate a book straight to Book Harvest which gives books to disadvantaged kids. For them, I usually grab a few books like A Wrinkle in Time or some Choose Your Own Adventure books or something. I also semi-frequently buy (by accident) a…

I'm still looking for the discontinued Dutch version of Atlas Shrugged (also Ayn Rand for those who don't know) to give to people around me (many don't regularly read in English). It changed me, I think it can do wonders for insecure people that tend to efface themselves for "the good of the group" and that may be less happy than they could be because of it. Also it may very well provide people with unbalanced marria…

I don't understand how Ayn Rand always seems to trigger down votes here.

Me either, but I'm used to it. Whatever. The downvoters are probably the people who thought Ellsworth Toohey was the hero in The Fountainhead.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#479

Post by sevensor »

stdbrouw wrote: post #388
peckrob wrote: post #232

I read a lot of Science Fiction for fun. These are a few of my favorites that I've given to other people: 1. Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter. When I think of epic hard science fiction, the Xeelee Sequence books spring to mind. With a story line that spans millions of years (and a few dozen books), this collection of short stories is a good introduction to one of the best and most underrated sci-fi series out there.…

Foundation is a great story, but am I the only one who thought the prose to be absolutely awful?

By the standards of the pulpy SF magazines Foundation was published in, Asimov was a pretty brilliant prose stylist. He's a little clunky by literary standards, but that's a pretty high bar. The man could tell a story, though. And he had more ideas than ten other SF authors put together.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#480

Post by alex_ixd »

grafelic wrote: post #414

I haven't yet gifted a copy of Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's "The Illuminatus! Triology", but I want to. This book strikes the fine balance of being funny and mindblowingly weird at the same time. Great fun.

I second this. I did my first reading in high school and it changed me for the better (and weirder).
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